The Sindhi words 'Karo Kari' literally mean blackened, stained or disgraced, and are used to describe a man (Karo) and woman (Kari) involved in overt courtship, a sexual relationship, elopement, or even free-will marriage without parental consent. Such a daring act by any girl triggers enmity. The girl's family solicits the help of the police and judiciary, claiming inducement, kidnapping, or forcible marriage, or disputing her age. They seek the intercession of influential persons from the tribe of the man involved for the return of the girl so that they have the chance to kill her conveniently.
People's Silence
The Hindus of Sindh dispute the age of their girls who convert to Islam and contract marriage with Muslim men. A Sindhi spiritual and political leader, Mian Mithoo from Ghotki Tehsil, has earned notoriety for such marriages. Hindu girls often convert to Islam at his Dargah. Mian Mithoo represented the Pakistan People's Party in the National Assembly for a couple of terms when the party was led by Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto. After the frequency of such conversions of Hindu girls increased, the current PPP leaders kept Mian Mithoo at bay.
The tribal traditions, which always take precedence over religious edicts and civil and criminal laws within the tribe, treat any of the above social indiscretions as a disgraceful breach of the honour of the woman's family, and an unforgivable crime. This social indiscretion renders her and her partner liable to murder. The man is killed for his audacious indulgence in tarnishing the honour of the family of his female partner. The relatives of the woman commit murder to vindicate their honour in the tribal tradition. This is appreciated by the unlettered followers of tribal traditionalists.
Wasted Potential
This is not a new phenomenon. This inhuman tribal practice has been in existence for centuries and is traced back to outmoded patriarchal societies which considered women not equal partners in life, but living objects to satisfy the sexual needs of their husbands, bear children, and look after the house. They were traded in exchange for money, land or animals, or as retribution to settle old enmities. They were not allowed to have social, economic and legal rights as known in modern constitutional, democratic and liberal societies. They had no say in their wedlock, no legal right to inheritance and no social status.
Nurturing Entrepreneurs
Islam placed extraordinary emphasis on the rights of women. It made the consent of the woman mandatory for marriage, entitled her to dowry and a fixed share of inheritance from the movable and immovable properties of her parents, and made her the sole heir to her husband's possessions. These Islamic edicts raised the status of women in society. However, tribal traditions survived the changes that religious beliefs, moral philosophies, and modern civil and criminal laws sought to enforce for gender parity in human rights.
The tribal practices owed their survival to factors such as the lack of education, social reforms, the economic dependency of women, the joint family system, the hold of tribal chiefs given their social, economic and political power, corruption within the police, faulty investigation, the exploitation of loopholes in our prosecution system to manage relatively lighter punishments, Jirga intercessions, and, above all, the absence of legal and constitutional awareness in society, and the heightened sense of vanity and honour of fathers, brothers and uncles in outdated tribal societies to punish a female member who dares to defy their authority over her.
Known Problem, Missing Response
This sense of pride is, sometimes, accentuated by the taunts of relatives, neighbours and tribal fellows. Human beings are inhuman by nature. All religious edicts and moral philosophies tend to tame human arrogance, pride, ego, vanity, the sense of vengeance and vindictiveness. In developed societies, these base human traits have been tamed by the dissemination of education, promotion of social norms, and consciousness about women's legal and constitutional rights through constitutional and democratic governance. In those societies, the prosecution and judiciary work hand in hand to deliver cheap and quick justice against any excess.
Sometimes, human jealousies triggered by the unfaithfulness of women do result in heinous crimes. But these crimes are not as frequent and extensive as in our society. Our girls really live under insecurity and fear in our rural regions. Western states take it as their responsibility to provide social and economic security to their citizens through the rule of law and equality before the law.
Past in Perspective
There is no concept of tribal society herded by tribal chiefs, no Jirga courts manned by mini tribal chiefs or area landlords to give arbitrary decisions that depend on the willingness or goodwill of the parties for implementation. These tribal intercessions, sometimes, result in equally condemnable acts of criminality, such as the sanctioning, in retribution, of the marriage of minor girls to men from the aggrieved party, or ordering the rape or disgrace of the women of aggressors in full view of the crowd gathered there. These decisions leave a festering wound in the families, instigating them to seek vengeance.
A professor with a PhD in Computer Science from France, Ajmal Sawand, leaves his well-paid job in Paris and returns to IBA Sukkur to teach the children of his land, Sindh. He is ruthlessly killed by ruffians from a rival tribe to avenge an old murder committed by people of the Sawand tribe, with whom this innocent educationist had no connection. His crime was to be from the Sawand tribe. The crimes against our innocent daughters are truly hair-raising and shameful.
Some good years back, probably in 2011-2012, four girls of the Jamali tribe in Nasirabad district were buried alive. We heard the echo of this inhuman act in the National Assembly also. In those years, another event was more heart-rending. Hounds were set after a girl who was running and beseeching for her life in Khairpur. Finally, she was caught and torn into pieces by the hounds. Recently, two girls from the Chandio tribe were killed and buried in shallow graves. Disgraceful and shameful, really.
(To be continued)
Ambassador M. Alam Brohi
The writer is a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and has served as Ambassador for two terms. He is the author of five books.
